Heart of Hope
by AdmiralKathryn
Summary: Just a cute B'Elanna story.


Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. Same old, same old. Voyager, its crew and all other subsidies belong to Paramount.  
  
1 Heart of Hope  
  
Colors swirled and the throbbing pain in her head was enough to nauseate her. She leaned over and threw up. When she was finished, she was trembling with cold. But who could expect the Taranians to be kind enough to throw her a blanket? B'Elanna just couldn't take it anymore. She got up, but, as soon as she stood, pain surged throughout her body and she felt nauseous all over again.  
  
She couldn't remember all the specific details, but she remembered working on a warp core realignment when one of her so called crewmembers came up behind her and hit her in the back of the head. Then, she woke up here, on a Taranian war ship. She began to feel massive pressure build up inside her head, as if an outside force were creating it. It became so unbearable that a weakened B'Elanna began to scream.  
  
"Chakotay! How did this happen? First we need a warp core realignment and my chief engineer couldn't explain it. Then Ensign O'Ryan turns out to be a Taranian spy and kidnaps our chief engineer. And, to top it off, I'm out of coffee dammit."  
  
"Kathryn, calm yourself down. You're trembling. Look."  
  
He gently picked up the captain's hand and showed it to her. To her dismay he was right. Well, she needed rest too. She had gone for the past 4 days on 20 cups of coffee. But it was irrelevant, illogical. She had to get her chief engineer back. Without B'Elanna doing the warp core realignment, it would take the engineering crews two days to finish.  
  
Her throat was raw and scratchy the next time she woke up. Now the bright lights were on in the cell. The hurt her eyes, but, she was relieved to find that the Taranians had left some kind of mush they called food, and some murky-looking water, if you even dare call it that.  
  
This was the first time she had been awake long enough to get up and walk. It didn't hurt anymore, well, now that she was ignoring the screaming pain in her left leg. She took a good look around her cell and found that there wasn't much to look at. A stone bed and the plate of food were all that was in there.  
  
She walked over to the plate of food and picked it up, then she walked over to the bed to sit down and eat. As she did, the door creaked open. A very miniscule Taranian was outside. At that precise moment, her stomach growled with hunger.  
  
"B'Elanna Torres. It is very nice to see you up and about after two days."  
  
"O'Ryan? What the hell is going on? Why are you here?"  
  
"My name isn't O'Ryan anymore. It is Commander Quorl and you, well, you are my 'hostage'."  
  
"I'm not your anything, you, you, wild Targ."  
  
"A feisty, defiant little girl aren't you? Don't care about anything but your puny little captain, do you?"  
  
"Captain Janeway may be a lot of things, but puny isn't one of them."  
  
A sour look crossed Quorl's face and he reached out and pushed a small blue button on his belt. B'Elanna could feel the pressure building up in her head once more as she fell to the cold ground.  
  
"Report," commanded Chakotay. His duty shift was almost over. He hoped that Kathryn was getting some of the well-deserved rest she'd piled up.  
  
"Engineering reports that the realignment procedure is almost finished. That would be in approximately 4.1 hours," well, that was Tuvok for you. Always raring and ready to go.  
  
Yeah, he's a Vulcan. The only thing 'ol Pointy Ears would get excited over is getting rid of all us illogical humans, thought Tom Paris. He was very worried about B'Elanna. They all were.  
  
Captain Janeway appeared from behind the Turbolift doors and told Chakotay that it was his turn to get some rest. He looked like he was going to protest, then he saw the look on Kathryn's face and decided against it. He headed for the Turbolift.  
  
"Captain. We have a lock on the Taranian vessel. It appears to be in some kind of stasis."  
  
"Illogical. The ship is obviously in an attack mode captain because weapons are targeting onto our engines."  
  
"Shields up. Tom, evasive maneuvers."  
  
"Aye captain."  
  
"Target their weapons array. Can you get a lock on B'Elanna?"  
  
"Yes ma'am. B'Elanna locked on to and ready to transport."  
  
"Energize."  
  
At the precise moment, Voyager and the Taranian vessel both fired upon each other. The Taranian vessel blew up on contact but because of Tom, Voyager was only hit at the engines, and at that, not very badly. Still, engineering reported that it would take at least 2 weeks before they could get underway again.  
  
"Janeway to sickbay. Do you have her?"  
  
"Yes. She requests to speak with Tom Paris captain."  
  
"Tom, report to sickbay."  
  
When Tom got there, B'Elanna started talking a mile a minute.  
  
"Tom, I knew that you and Captain Janeway would come back. I knew that you wouldn't leave me on that ship to die."  
  
"No we wouldn't. You are our chief engineer and we can't leave you behind. We'd never get home."  
  
When Tom got back on the bridge, the only words he said were to Captain Janeway, and they were,  
  
"Captain. It seems that underneath her Klingon half, B'Elanna really does have a heart of hope." 


End file.
